1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an interface for data transmission in a motor vehicle between a mobile data appliance having a computation unit, particularly a pocket computer, mobile telephone, smartphone or the like, and an information display in the motor vehicle, particularly the display of a human-machine interface (HMI) of a vehicle communication unit, a headup display projected onto the windshield of the vehicle, for example, an entertainment display arranged at the front of the vehicle, for example on the backrests of the front seats, or other displays arranged in the vehicle. One form of application that is particularly preferred in accordance with the invention provides for the presentation on the central information display of the vehicle. In addition, a computer program product that is provided for setting up the interface is described.
2. Prior Art
For purposes of data transmission, mobile data appliances and information displays can be connected to one another by wireless communication, for example Bluetooth or WLAN or the like, as a result of which the screen content of the mobile data appliance can be presented on the information display.
In principle, it is known to present the content of a mobile telephone on the display of another computation unit, for example even in a motor vehicle. Doing this requires separate user inputs on the mobile data appliance and/or in the computation unit to which the display on which the data of the mobile data appliance are intended to be presented is connected.
However, this is complex and because of this complexity the function is actually used relatively rarely by users.
Particularly in motor vehicles, this is disadvantageous because in that environment the time available for such inputs is limited. For safety reasons, provision is frequently made for such inputs to be able to be made only while the vehicle is at a standstill. This involves the use of red phases of traffic lights, for example, for the driver of the vehicle. However, the user of a mobile telephone or other mobile data appliance usually has to work through a complex menu structure in order to initiate the relevant commands for presenting the screen content of the mobile data appliance on a display that is connected to an external computation unit.
EP 2 045 999 A1 discloses equipping a mobile telephone with an acceleration sensor and displaying and selecting data to be transmitted on a display. The data transmission itself, via an infrared data link, is initiated, according to the teaching of EP 2 045 999 A1, when the mobile telephone is held at a particular angle that is detected by the acceleration sensor. However, this does not involve transmission of the graphical screen presentation. Instead, only a transmission process for previously selected data is initiated.
US 2009/0309846 A1 discloses a communication system in which information presented on an interactive display can be transmitted to another interactive display via a communication network. This can involve the provision of a motion sensor that, for example, captures the hand movement of a user in order to transmit the screen content presented on the screen in the direction of another screen. This makes it simple for many persons on different interactive screens to work together and distribute contents that are presented on the interactive display. The distribution is accomplished by a central server to which the various screens are connected. This is complicated, since the server needs to be configured beforehand and the screens that are to be used need to be registered on the server.
Such management is not suitable for spontaneous transmission of screen content from one display to another without the central server of the system needing to be set up beforehand.
Finally, US 2009/0027332 A1 discloses a method for controlling the screen contents of a vehicle display, which control is effected by the user by gestures, these gestures being recorded and evaluated using an image recording system. Such screen control in motor vehicles is technically complex, since appropriate cameras need to be installed in the cockpit of a vehicle and evaluated using image processing. Such processing requires some time, which means that gesture control controlled by image evaluation is usually sluggish. Further, a problem arises when distinguishing between gestures that are intended for controlling the display and normal gestures, for example during a conversation with another person in the vehicle.